Kokuei
| birthdate = January 13 | other name = Scarlet Killer (朱殺人者, Ake satsujinsha) Kokuei (黒影, Kokuei; lit. "Dark Shadow") | age = 100 + | gender = Female | height = 174.9 cm (5.74 ft) | weight = 56.1 kgs (123 lbs) | blood type = O | hometown = Unknown | homecountry = Land of Fire (Apparent) | affiliation =Her Clan (Name Remains Unknown) | previous affiliation = | occupation = Swordsman, Assassin for Hire | previous occupation = Shinobi | team = None | previous team = | partner = | previous partner = Ken | family = Eiki Takaha (son from the "other" man) | clan = Undisclosed | rank = Unknown | classification = Assassin, | reg = | academy = ?? | chunin = ?? | jonin = ?? | kekkei = | tota = | beast = | hiden = | unique = Agelessness (Apparent) | nature = Lightning Release (Affinity) Earth Release | jutsu = Body Flame Technique Hiding with Camouflage Technique Hidden Shadow Snake Hands Earth Release: Light-Weight Rock Technique Earth Release: Ultralight-Weight Rock Technique Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder Lightning Release Shadow Clone Shadow Clone Technique Shadow Shuriken Technique Summoning Technique (Snakes) Transformation Technique | weapons = Custom Tools }} Kokuei (黒影, Kokuei; lit. "Dark Shadow") is one of the most fierce and skilled assassin in the Land of Fire. She is also one of the best martial artists of her clan. She was also the last leader of her clan before it was invaded and she was captured and put in a box which put her in a state of suspended animation. Appearance Kari Yokujin made her first appearance as a child when her father first revealed that he did in fact have a child; a heir to his throne. Even as a child who was just six years old, Kari made it clear that her appearance and personality were what people would want to see and not her real self. She was fairly attractive and was often refereed to as "overtly" cute by her elders. However, Kari is mostly known by her appearance after she turned 19. Even after turning 19, she retained her child-like cuteness and was in all fairness, a slender and attractive woman. While initially she was petite, weighing just over 90 pounds (92 lbs), she did however changed her physical appearance almost completely by the time she was 22. Kari as an young adult, was depicted as a tall woman (174.9 cm/5'7"+) who was unarguably taller than most women (With average height of women being around the range of 158-169 cm) and weighted over a 100 pounds. Even after 80 years, she retains the youthful appearance of a woman in her early twenties, since, she was stuck in suspended animation for almost 80 years according to her, she will retain her looks till she dies. Kari has long, silky straight dark brown, almost black hair with light brown eyes that most find enchanting. Part of being an assassin, she does have to maintain a seductive look and often does so by adapting various different types of clothing and body language along with some make up. After, she came back from being stuck in suspended animation, she started wearing a blue, leather jacket with yellow stripes on the wrists, with a yellow shirt underneath, as well as a pair of red jeans. She's sometimes seen wearing a blue tank top midriff shirt over a red bra, silver bracelets, a red skirt and knee length boots. However, recently, she has replaced her choice of clothing with a light blue, long sleeved shirt that exposes her midriff, with a red skirt, as well as sandals (with no heels). After being back almost two years, her appearance has changed slightly and her body has now become slightly more muscular with her assets becoming bigger over time. Initially, she had natural breast and hip which were fairly big and quite appealing but recently they have become bigger, so that they can be used as a tool to lurk her prey in her trap. She mentions that she wears revealing outfits in order to distract her adversaries and victims. Her official measurements have been stated to be "36D-24-33 inches". With now her no longer being an assassin, she has stopped sporting such outfits and wears what appears to a violet and black leather suit with some rubber padding. The outfit consists of a long sleeve and metal gauntlets and allows her to store two short swords and also allows her to carry her quiver and arrows on her back. Her left thigh also stores a combat knife and on her hip is attached a pouch that contains shurikens and flash bombs. She also dons a white scarf with her outfit which sometimes is used to cover her mouth. Gallery Kokuei.jpg Civilian clothing.jpg taking the mantle of kokuei.jpg with her brother.gif secret snake technique.jpg 444824-vlcsnap_2011_07_21_17h08m50s18.png as she is beaten and ravished.jpg being followed.jpg back in the days.jpg Kills_her_assilant.jpg Her_first_kill.jpg History WARNING This section contains themes that are not appropriate for children and is suitable for mature audience (13+). You've been warned, read at your own risk! Kari was born to the secret clan of assassins whose name remains unknown till date. She was actually born as the illegitimate child of Raijin Yokujin (弋人雷神, Yokujin Raijin) who was actually the leader of the clan that time. Raijin had fallen in love with a women named Eiko (栄枯, Eiko) who belonged to a low class family of the clan. But, Raijin already was married and had two children (Twins) by this time and it an act of disgrace which is why Raijin had temporarily lost his people's confidence but in order to regain his respect, he choose to banish Eiko who has actually already pregnant with his child. Two years after Kari's birth, her mother Eiko had run out of money and as such, she was forced into selling her body to other man to make a living for herself and her child. With her mother becoming a prostitute, Kari was mostly alone as she grew up in poor slums of near a red district in the Land of Fire. She spent most of her time playing with broken dolls, swimming, jumping over roof tops and playing Tic-tac-toe with her friends/slum mates. She was even seen playing Toads and Frogs. By the time she was five, she became street smart and could read and write, not only her mother tongue, Japanese but also started learning English. This made the Land Lord aware of the fact that she might become something of a rebel someday, as education is the enemy of poverty. He made it clear to Eiko that if her daughter even so much as tries to touch a book, he would rape her and kill her daughter. One day, she went to get something from the store for her mother. She was stopped by two older boys who were making fun of her mother, calling her a whore, and then calling her 'the next whore'. One of the boys picked up a piece of fruit and smashed it in her face. The other, joking that she had some sort of disease, told him to pull skirt pants down so they could give her an examination. Kari snatched the cigarette from his mouth and then put it out in his eye, tackled the other, viciously tugging his hair and clawing and biting his face. The people near on the street pulled her off, referring to her wildness as that of a mad dog. The first boy attacked had been partially blinded. When questioned about the incident, she refused to talk about her motivation for attacking the boys, leaving others to presume the assault was unprovoked. She was then abused by her mother and even by the Land Lord himself after she locked herself in a room. However, a man rescued her, shooting her mother and the Land Lord through the chest with three arrows. This man was her own father, Raijin. He had his doubts about having another child and with the rumors flying around, he had to see for himself. Surprisingly, the death of her mother did not at all shock her. Instead, she was pleased with what the man had done. She then proceeded by throwing acid on the corpse of the land owner and asked the man who he was. After a brief talk and Raijin explaining who he was, Kari reluctantly accepted the help of her father and agreed to go back with him. After being brought back to the clan, she met her half brothers and their mother. As time passed, her brothers (specially the younger one) started bullying her before she finally snapped and broke three (3) ribs of the elder one while stabbed the younger one with a pen multiple times therefore ultimately killing him. Shocked at what she had done, she told her father that she is a danger for his family but instead, Raijin was impressed since, she lacked any kind of formal training and his sons were at least 4 years older than her and were actually trained from birth to become top assassins. He took her under his tutelage and began teaching her the ways of an assassin. The Lone Warrior Over the next six years, Kari trained in several deadly martial arts, disguise, stealth tactics, chakra control and assassination skills. She was then required to learn meditative techniques, weapon usage and learn foreign languages. So, she was sent to the Land of Wind and this is where she first met Benkei; the father of her to be "love of the life". After seven months of training, she heard rumors that someone was planning to kill the "Assassin's Head" (her father), so she rushed back to her home but by the time she reached home, he had already been killed by an unknown man who committed suicide right after he killed Raijin. While the elders of the clan asked her to stay and along with her brother lead the clan, she refused. After her father was killed by the mystery man, she lost her very soul and she went to the Mount Kyouki to train from a group of mystical beings. But she was later dismissed by their leader for bearing too much emotion over the death of her father. She thought she could gain the favor of the Kyouki assassins if she was to destroy their enemy, the "Handa". She joined their order in order to destroy them from within but she ended up killing her former Sensei. For years, Kari worked as a bounty hunter and assassin for hire. And, finally after a few months of her turning 18, she returned to her clan only to be thrown out by her own brother. Path of the Assassin Her brother called her impure and stated, it was clear that she was only back because she wanted the leadership of the clan for herself. She was framed for her father's death but soon was proved to be a levy claim by her brother. Kari manages to investigate on her own and proves that it was her uncle Tokkan who actually ordered the hit on her father. She found out the ties between Tokkan and her brother, Kaisa. After which, she ordered the clan to take Tokkan as a prisoner and challenged Kaisa to a duel with the terms of duel being that he may go free if he wins but will be killed and replaced by Kari as the leader if he loses. As expected, Kaisa was defeated by Kari who beat him to an inch of life but as she entered her room to recover from her injuries which she sustained during the battle, she was attacked from behind by her uncle who brutally ravished her along with another man and threw her unconscious body in a nearby river. She was rescued by an old man, who surprisingly was Muchinushi; the same man who dismissed her from Kyouki. While Muchinushi nurses her back to health, he also informs her that the "incident" has caused her to get pregnant. Afraid that she might be hunted down, she asked Muchinushi if he knew a place for her to give birth to her child and start a new life. As years passed by, Kari could no longer make the ends meet and as such, she was forced to take up "hunting" again. While at first she was reluctant, she rationalized killing as a way for her and her child to survive. She named the child Eiki (英気, Eiki; lit. "Will-Power" or "Great Wisdom") and had hoped to gain enough money from her jobs to live a luxurious life. However, she was soon proved to be wrong when a mission went south and she crossed her paths with a Handa associate who informed the organization that Kari was in fact still alive, this caused Handa to launch a "man-hunt" for Kari. Knowing that she couldn't risk getting her child killed, Kari contacted Muchinushi and with his help, she sent Eiki to an Ashram and lied to him by saying that she would soon return for him. To make things more difficult for Handa, Kari enrolled Eiki in the Ashram under the name "Eiki Takaha" and not Eiki Yokujin. Kari would then go on to recruit several of Handa's rival organization members and with Muchinushi's help, she managed to kill several of Handa assassins and even managed to capture their leader Mugoi. After this incident, she took up the mantle of "Kokuei"; a title given to the best Handa assassin. Knowing that she could no longer return to her son and "normal" life, she decides to pursue vengeance and soon manages to kill her uncle. But, instead of assassinating her brother, she actually straight up confronts him and challenges him to under duel. But this time, Kokuei kills Kaisa and takes his head as a trophy as she claims the throne and becomes the new head of the assassins. Darkest Night After seventeen months of Kari becoming the new clan leader, she starts wondering about her 6 year old child whom she left in the Ashram. Things go haywire, with several foreigners discovering the clan which has been supposedly hidden from the entire world for the last three centuries. A war begins and at the end, Kokuei is encased in a mysterious coffin which apparently keeps her body in the state of suspended animation for the next century. Current Event This section is a small run down of what the character is doing currently. She is currently held up inside the coffin, waiting for her revival. Only 61 months have past, it seems that her coffin is being transported to another place. Personality Kari had a very straightforward and charming personality but like her son Eiki, she was a person who "just couldn't stay out of trouble". She made unwise, often selfish decisions, such as pursuing a boy with a girlfriend, provoking physical attacks from his girlfriend and her friends in retaliation. She was apparently something of a trouble maker. With time, Kari became more cold and brutal, and far more savvy with technology and science. Despite her unwillingness to kill innocent people, she was perfectly willing to kill people who she thinks deserve death, especially if they hurt her specially her son. While most of her character traits remain unexplored, since, she is more of a doer, it can be assumed that she is a cold blooded killer while in the heat of battle but outside battle, contrasting what people would expect from her being an assassin and an heir to the throne, she shows a warm, kind, and caring side. With time she became more brutal and inhumane but surprisingly, her loving side for her child remained intact and she would do anything to protect Eiko. That included her begging to Muchinushi to help her. Despite what she does, she has a moral compass as she simply subdued the guards that tried to arrest her during her arrival in the Land of Iron and didn't involve innocent people and simply made her way out after she subdued them. Her "friendliness" is also show in her debut to the Land of Iron; giving a warm smile and a playful wink to a young boy waiting in line near her. She also has a liking for small animals and birds. She can be stubborn, feisty, brave, independent, (which can, sometimes, get her into trouble) and doesn't like to be told what to do. She is tough and knows how to take care of herself. However, she has a big heart and tends to see the best in the people around her. Despite being brave, Kari does have her moments of being terrified, like when the Handa came after her son. She has apparently developed a bit of addiction to alcohol and drugs in order to cope with her loss. She is reluctant to admit that she has a problem, and spirals deeper and deeper into her addiction. However, not much is known about her character. =Powers And Abilities= Natural/Assassin's Curse As the child of Raijin, she has received the special or more accurately the meta-human abilities possessed by the clan members. There are an unspecified number of assassins in the employ of the Clan, and as such their physical and mental abilities almost certainly differ from assassin to assassin. The royal family/clan leader's family seems to inherit some degree of enhanced strength, sight and healing abilities along with a strong psychic resistance. As noticed in Kari, she is able to heal her broken bones and torn muscles within 10 hours or less, while sword and knife puncture wounds heal within 2 hours or so. She has even healed from broken limbs and holes through her chest in less than a week. She even managed to survive and recover from the fall off a tower. She is also virtually immune to intoxication by consuming alcohol. However, her healing is hugely dependent on her own body heat and if it decreases, her healing is greatly compromised. Aside from this, she has some degree of enhanced strength that allowed her to crush a fully grown man's windpipe and upon examination it was revealed that, she applied over 10 times greater force than an average Jōnin could. She has also physically bend metal with her bare hands. She also has slightly better sight and night vision than normal humans. Aside from years of practice and honing her skills, she did originally possess some resistance against mind invasion. Due to her training, she can currently resist telepathic intrusion and withhold certain information from high level mind readers. Abilities It can be assumed that Kari has gone through the training all clan members do. She likely possesses skills with a variety of other melee weapons such as swords, darts or the dagger that she keeps at her thigh. She is shown to be highly skilled in entering and leaving buildings. Being an assassin, she is a master of chakra control and stealth. She is shown to be an excellent marksman as she took out many soldiers with her throwing knives and a iron bar. She is well known as an elite assassin, if not the top assassin of her clan, as well as widely considered one of the best hand to hand fighters and martial artists as well as having proficiency and expertise with numerous weapons especially those typically associated with an assassin and kunoichi, such as katana, nunchucks, shurikens and throwing blades. Her martial arts skills often take on a more mystical nature, with her being able to manipulate people’s minds and make them see illusions or alternately having an elevated healing factor. This might be because, she uses genjutsu along with her hand to hand combat skills to fight off her enemies. Weapon Skills/Bukijutsu She has shown herself to be a master swordsman, cutting down multiple armed mercenaries in mere seconds. She has explicitly stated her weapon of choice were swords. She killed her former partner in a sword-fight, who was also a master swordsman. She even managed to best her Sensei during a spar. Currently, her skills have developed to the point that he was able to kill three of Mugoi's bodyguards in a matter of seconds and even disarm him without him noticing. Beside her prowess at close range she was also shown to be able to kill a guard by drawing her sword and throw it in one single motion. She demonstrated skills in archery that also rivaled that of her son's (in future), she was able to fire multiple arrows in rapid succession while standing on the head of a puppet that was in "motion". She was able to hit three fast moving targets and even managed to shoot Muchinushi in thigh despite the later's lightning fast reflexes and experience. She was able to quickly fire arrows while dodging her enemy's shots at her. She proved herself as an expert archer with astounding archery skills, a feat acknowledged by Kaisa seeing how tightly grouped the arrows shot to Tokkan's body were. She is skilled with knives, shurikens, sai's, swords, kusari gama and obviously is a master with her re-curve bow and customized arrows. She displayed a familiarity with poisons, using a small amount to poison her target via her sword. She later used a dart to make Tokkan pass out. She coated her arrow heads in curare to make them lethal and even carries a bullwhip around occasionally. As Kokuei, she once used a sansetsukon (Three-section staff) as such, it can be assumed that she has some experience with using one. She is highly proficient in the use of the bullwhip. She employs a 10 foot long, black leather braided bullwhip which is normally carried on her person. While she is rarely seen using nunchucks, she was once seen training with them and it can be assumed she is proficient in utilizing a nunchuck. Taijutsu and Physical Prowess Kari is a gifted and accomplished athlete, with heightened acrobatic prowess. Her feats have been so amazing, one could argue that her athletic ability is somewhat superhuman. Kari's level of fitness and physicality can be described as being akin to that of a low level meta-human especially her gymnastic abilities, agility, flexibility, endurance, balance, coordination, dexterity and reflexes. Kari is trained and adept in several martial arts disciplines, including several obscure and ancient styles and disciplines as well as more traditional arts such as Chitō-ryū Karate. She is especially stoic and battle hardened. She has an extremely high tolerance for pain. She has been repeatedly stabbed and continued to fight off attackers. When she was abducted by followers of the Handa and stabbed in the heart, she went so far as to pull out the blade and incapacitate her attackers. She was also once thrown off from a height of sixteen feet and managed to recover rather quickly and shrugged off the impact as if it were nothing. She has also developed an uncanny ability for aerial combat. She frequently jumps between and fights on top of moving objects and is accustomed to battle while in free fall. Kari has shown detailed knowledge of human anatomy in her dealings with criminals. She is familiar with the human bodies pressure points and anatomical weak spots. She has knowledge of deadly nerve strike based techniques, which she used to kill Tokkan, and tried to use on Muchinushi but was intercepted and forced into submission. She has displayed that she is highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat and martial arts, with a prowess that seems to rival Muchinushi's at times. She was able to easily beat five armed guards in a matter of seconds. She faced the Kaisa head on in a close quarters battle in which not only defeated him but almost killed him. She proved herself an agile fighter, using her light weight and flexibility to her advantage. She is faster than most assassins with similar training and her physical stats rival that of a taijutsu expert. Regardless of what others have to say, Kokuei is an exceptional martial artist. She was trained enough to fight two armed shinobi's while strapped to a chair. Even when injured, she more than held her own in many fights. Her fighting style blends Chitō-ryū Karate, Leopard Style Kung Fu, Singlestick and Sambo with Savate, Bakti Negara and Tàijíquán. Kokuei also has shown to possess above average stamina and she often uses chakra to further enhance her physical stats. Ninjutsu Kokuei is skilled in the field on ninjutsu and has a formidable arsenal. She is also the only assassin in her clan who managed to learn a technique which allowed her to decrease the weight of her targets to either caused them to float aimlessly or made it possibly for her to lift mountains. Using the same technique, she was also able to fly. She has an affinity for Lightning Release and can infuse her clones with her elemental chakra. Nature Transformation Kari is one of the few people to be blessed with the ability to use more than one element. While not a Kekkei Genkai user, she is a master of Earth Release and Lightning Release. She is capable of using advanced techniques such as Earth Release: Ultra-Added-Weight Rock Technique and Lightning Release Shadow Clone. Summoning Kokuei knows several forbidden and snake-related techniques which was apparently taught to her by her father. She also has the ability to summon snakes and use them for the Hidden Shadow Snake Hands technique and its stronger variant. She once was able to instantly summon a large snake to protect her from a barrage of shuriken attacks. She also apparently has own personal snake summon who has only been referred to but is yet to make an appearance. Trivia * She was initially going to be the love interest of Eiki but that was changed later to fit the plot better. * It is apparent that she has hypnotic abilities, it is unclear if that is simple eye based genjutsu or "a form of eye technique". It is apparent that she is a psychic. * Her character traits are inspired from a class mate of the user Omega Dragonite. * Kari is the first confirmed bisexual character created by Omega. * It is hinted that Eiki is not human but rather a hybrid of two species. The "other" man has been classified as an "unidentified living being" and Kari is a member of the dominant specie on earth known as, Homo sapiens sapiens. It has been said that Eiki's father is supposed to be from another race known as "Homo Sapiens Paramount". Notable Quotes * "That's the problem! You think I can but I cant! I can't stop. This is my path..., always will be!" ---- Author's Review: